


Christmas A to Z

by DJClawson



Series: Theodore Nelson's Adventures in Sharing a Workspace [6]
Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Cats, Christmas fic, Everybody's a little bit drunk on Christmas, F/M, I don't even know if they married, M/M, Margaret Murdock is not my favorite tag, veganism, vigilante boyfriends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-22
Updated: 2018-12-22
Packaged: 2019-09-25 01:11:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17111630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DJClawson/pseuds/DJClawson
Summary: Christmas is Theo's favorite holiday, if no one's there to screw it up.





	Christmas A to Z

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Nell](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nell/gifts).



> Thanks, as always, to Pogopop for her excellent beta work!
> 
> To Callistemon: I am working on that fill. I just wanted to get this one out before Christmas (for obvious reasons). And I have to do some research about how to cut up a cow.

Christmas was Theo’s favorite holiday.

He supposed that wasn’t particularly original of him, but it was. Working in food services meant he worked a lot of holidays when people with offices got off but still needed to eat. There was a brief period when he was old enough to drink that St. Patrick’s Day was his favorite holiday, but when he started working full-time at the store he discovered the misery of hungry day-drunks wandering in looking for meat. But on Christmas, the shop was actually closed - for real - and he could see the family that he really saw enough of the rest of the year when he thought about it.

Christmas Day was a trip to Long Island to his aunt and uncle’s, because they had a house with a yard and couches and beds for people to pass out on, and they insisted on cooking just this once. But Christmas Eve was just immediate family in his parents’ apartment above the store, which fortunately they had not sold yet, though they did rent out the childhood bedroom he had shared with Foggy, from time to time. For years, it was just the four of them, plus the two Mahoneys, who were family since Mr. Mahoney had died in the line of duty protecting the shop from an armed robbery. Foggy and Brett weren’t old enough to remember the funeral, but Theo did, though if asked about Officer Mahoney, the most he could say was “he was a cop” and “he saved my dad.”

Over the years there had been a few - very few - additions. Matt was missing only two years since Foggy had introduced him - one year when he was off with some girlfriend that Foggy clearly despised, and last year, when Foggy was starting at HBC and said that he and Matt were not on speaking terms for reasons he wasn’t going to go into. And Marci, who did not celebrate Christmas, was returning for a second time. While Theo remembered Foggy bitching through a few of their breakups, and calling her things that were otherwise not in keeping with his personality, Marci had always been nice to Theo. They seemed to know where they stood with each other, which was fine by him. This was much better than Matt, who never spoke a single word to her, and vice versa. Eventually, since Foggy was clearly going to put a ring on it, Theo had to ask about it.

“She doesn’t put up with my bullshit,” Matt said. “And she thinks Foggy is too devoted to me.”

“That’s how she put it?”

Matt frowned and said. “She’s probably not wrong.”

Theo was too diplomatic to say anything to that.

The day before Christmas, Matt did absolutely the cutest fucking thing, and showed up with a gift for Sadie. “They said it would be good for cats.” He held up a plastic package with a cardboard label. He clearly had no idea what it was and no desire to admit that.

“I’m glad you specified,” Theo said. It was a fake mouse on a long cord, meant to hang from a door frame. “She loves these. Thank you. On her behalf.” He kissed Matt and hung it from the frame of the bathroom doorway. Sadie proceeded to do the following:

  1. Pretend it didn’t exist.
  2. Treat its existence with utter disdain.
  3. Go back to ignoring it.
  4. Bat at it when she thought he wasn’t looking.
  5. Tear it down mercilessly and bite into the cord until it came loose.
  6. Disappear for a while.
  7. Ritually drown it in her water bowl.



She was on the next-to-last step when Theo started getting ready. Now that he was running the shop, his parents absolutely refused to let him help out with dinner. If it had been anyone but his parents, he would have been skeptical. One of the first years into his veganhood, he’d gone to his aunt and uncle’s and been served a plate of white rice.

“I can see you there,” he said to Sadie, who was rolling around with the toy between her paws, between the bed and the wall. “You can just admit when you like something.”

Sadie disappeared into the bathroom with the toy in her mouth and did not emerge until her food was ready, and even then, Theo had to tap on her bowl a few times.

“Most cats don’t even _have_ a favorite cut of steak,” he said as she stood debating about it in the doorway. “Much less get to eat it. It’s kibble for the rest of them.” Sadie deserved to be spoiled - maybe not because of the way she was behaving right now, but because she’d used the Christmas sweater Brett’s mom had made him as a shredded bed, and that was why he didn’t have to wear it tonight. “Fine. But I better not get home to a mouse in your bowl! And I don’t care if it’s a real one or a fake one!” No one in New York could truly say whether or not they had mice until they got a cat.

The Mahoneys were already at his parents’ place, Bess at the end of the couch next to the proper tree that Theo couldn’t have because he owned a cat. “Look at you,” she said to Theo. “You’ve grown. Or I’ve shrunk.”

“I’ve grown,” he lied, and let her tug at his long hair. “Hey, Officer.”

“There’s a woman running around Chinatown with a magic sword lit up like a lightsaber, but she’s outside of my precinct, so I am off-duty,” Brett said. “Until Daredevil shows up.”

“Aw, it’s Christmas,” Bess said. “I’m sure he’s taking the night off.”

Since Theo detected no hint of sarcasm or secrecy in her voice, he suspected she really was just saying that, and not meaning it as if she knew where Daredevil was going to be tonight specifically. But you never knew with Bess.

Speak of the Devil - Nelson and Murdock and Page made their appearance, sans Nelson, as Foggy was coming separately with Marci. Karen was a new addition, certainly welcomed by everyone just as Matt had been, and Theo could see why people would assume they were together, or in denial about destiny. When Matt could be stand-offish, Karen was cheerful and bright and some part of Theo wanted to push her aside and kiss Matt so hard he fell into the door. The lizard part of his brain, which he had years of experience ignoring, certainly did. And Matt was a flirt, he knew that, as he stood in line and waited his turn to get pinched in the cheek by Bess Mahoney and grilled on his absence the previous year. Karen brought flowers, and Matt, the more knowledgeable and Irish of the two, brought booze. Unlike the rest of them, he was dressed for church and would restrict himself to drinks before dinner.

“It’s so nice to finally have you,” Theo’s mom said to Karen. “And to have you _back_ ,” she added, tugging at Matt’s beginner beard, which he grew when he was lazy, or maybe because Theo had let slip that he liked it. “And unless Franklin’s off proposing somewhere he should be here soon.”

“We said we would go easy on him tonight,” Theo’s dad announced as he stood over the liquor cabinet. “Who wants what?”

Matt was a scotch man, and Brett actually liked eggnog, or pretended to, so that Theo’s mom would have someone to drink it with. Bess settled for nothing less than a gin, and Theo planned to pace himself with that fancy shit beer that Matt kept stocked in his apartment and he’d taken a liking to. Karen, he learned, knew her vermouth.

“Pop!” Theo whispered as he watched his father pour himself a healthy glass of rye. “Your medication!”

“I’ll have you know that the doc in Florida recommended weed for arthritis, and I’m switching as soon as I get back down there,” his father said. “ _Sláinte_!”

“Not in front of Brett!”

“Brett is too busy chasing vigilantes and not catching them,” his mother interjected. “Because he’s a polite boy who knows what’s good for him. It’s not like you can go arresting the Avengers for saving the world. Why can’t we have our own heroes?”

“Especially when they have such amazing legal teams,” Brett grumbled. “Or is Foggy out of that game now?”

“Nelson and Murdock is representing a ... different clientele,” Matt said. “Though we will always have a place for former police officers who were unjustly accused and sent to prison for crimes they did not commit, as I believe Mr. Cage was.”

Almost on cue, Foggy burst into the room, wearing his expensive coat and three different scarves that had been gifts from Bess Mahoney in different years and holding Marci’s hand. “We’re here! Uber lied to us, but we’re here! And we’re hungry!” He hugged his mother. “Hi, Mom.”

“Just don’t start eating the popcorn off the tree,” she said, and hugged Marci next.

“I was six!”

“You were eight,” she corrected, and said to Marci, “How are you, dear?”

“I managed to get Foggy here in one piece, so pretty good,” Marci said. “Merry Christmas, Mrs. Nelson.”

“It’s Anna and you know it.” This was an ongoing not-particularly-vicious fight between them. “Happy Holidays.” Mom liked everyone, but she really liked Marci.

“We come bearing gifts!” Foggy announced, and while people munched on appetizers that had too much green and red food coloring, they distributed little gifts, done more for the sake of it than anything else. Bess gave Marci and Karen knitted caps, the first of many items if they stayed in the family, or at least came to this particular dinner. The rest of the items were mostly booze (man, they really were drunks, weren’t they?) or items to take up space on a shelf. Matt always got mittens from somebody even though he never wore anything over his hands. From Foggy, Theo opened a box with a very tiny pirate hat with an elastic band to hold it in place.

“This isn’t going to fit me.”

“It’s not for you. It’s for Captain Sadie!”

“Captain Sadie?” Matt asked.

“Yeah, because she’s a pirate,” Foggy said. “I think it was made for dogs, but I’m sure it will work on a cat.”

“She’s not gonna wear this.”

Foggy smiled his good-natured, slightly-tipsy smile. “Just put it on her for five seconds and send me a picture.”

“I’ll send you a picture of the claw marks on my arm from the attempt,” he said. “Expect blood.”

“Why is Sadie a pirate?” Karen asked. “And who is Sadie?”

“His cat who hates everybody and eats better than he does.”

“She likes _me_ ,” _and Matt_ , Theo wanted to add. Normally he would just flip open his phone to a picture of her, but he realized Matt was similarly confused. “Sadie is a rescue. They think she was on the streets for a while, because she’s got fighting scars. One’s right over her left eye, which is permanently closed.” He did show Karen a picture. “She was at that shelter forever because she’s not, you know, conventionally cute.”

“Awww,” Karen said. “She’s _very_ cute.”

When she handed the phone back, a text came in from his mother. _Your father won’t ask and he’ll be mad when you offer but he needs help carving the turkey_ _so please come in and insist on doing it for him_.

“Excuse me,” he said, finishing his drink and heading into the kitchen, where Pop was struggling with the bird. “So I was thinking this year, we should have Foggy carve the turkey.”

“Are you kidding? You want to eat, don’t you?” his father said.

“Maybe Duane Reade has one of those electric carving knives in its seasonal section,” Theo said, picking up a discarded knife. “For emergencies.”

“I can do it!” his father said, and Theo looked at his mom, who was clearly exasperated.

“Yeah, well, I need the practice,” Theo said, and succeeded in getting the fork from his father’s shaking hands. “Weed, huh? Your doctor really said that?”

“It’s an anti-inflammatory,” his father said. Behind him, his mother gave him a smile. “You know they got these vaporizers that can help you smoke with oils now?”

“No, Pop. I had no idea.”

 

Halfway through dinner - or whenever they hit that point where people were drunk enough to propose toasts but not drunk enough to start nodding off in their chairs - they received another guest. Mom jumped up to answer the door, but Matt did too, much to Theo’s confusion, until he saw who it was.

“We didn’t know if she could come,” Mom said.

And G-d damnit, it was a nun. A real nun, penguin outfit and all. She was much shorter than Matt, with a thin, harsh face that wasn’t mean so much as weathered.

“This is Sister Maggie,” Matt said. “My, um, mom.” When he released her hand he suddenly didn’t know what to do with his own, and fiddled with his cane.

“I’m sorry - I can’t stay long,” she said. “I run the orphanage and I have to somehow get a dozen teenagers in jackets and ties. It’s always a struggle.”

“They’re pin-ons,” Matt said knowingly, and Theo was trying to do the math of how Matt grew up in an orphanage _run by his mom_.

“It’s still a struggle,” she retorted. These were two people who knew each other, but not in the most conventional way.

“Would you like a drink?” Theo’s dad asked, very much meaning it, even though _this was a nun_.

“Oh, just a little whiskey, if you have any,” she said, as if it were not immediately apparent from the contents of the table that they did. Matt offered his seat as introductions were made, and connections were explained, and nobody asked too many questions about Maggie specifically, or what she was doing back in her son’s life, or where she had been in the first place (though, obviously, the answer was the church). Matt and Maggie barely spoke to each other but also barely needed to, since she was the focus of attention, and everyone had a choice story to share about Matt, who did not look drunk enough for this, and was very happy to escort her to church. The moment they were gone, some more unscrupulous people in the room jumped on Foggy to explain everything, and he admitted that he really did not know everything, and if he did it wasn’t his business, thank you very much, how about dessert?

Sometime around when the pie came out exhaustion descended on Theo, who had been up early to fill all of the Christmas orders, and he retreated to the living room with a fresh beer on a couch that had seen its fair share of spills so he really didn’t have to worry about it.

Some amount of time must have passed, because when he opened his eyes, Marci was sitting next to him. “So, Matt.”

“Yeah, his mom’s a nun. It’s kind of fucked up.”

“Everything about Murdock is kind of fucked up,” she said, and she wasn’t exactly wrong, and Theo was too tired to fight her over it. “So, you and Matt.”

“Aw, fuck.”

“You shouldn’t curse. Santa’s going to bring you a lump of coal.”

“We’re not ... it’s none of your business, okay?” Please, please, let that be okay. “Foggy didn’t tell you, did he?”

“Foggy can’t keep secrets from me to save his life.”

“Oh yeah? What about Daredevil?” It slipped right out before he could stop himself. Shit. Shit shit shit -

“He’s never told me but I don’t have to ask,” she said. “I think he’s proud that he thinks I don’t know, so don’t tell him, all right? Plus I could use some plausible deniability. The rest of you could be labeled accomplices.”

“I’m just the dumb ... boyfriend-thingy. No one’s ever going to accuse me of being a criminal mastermind.”

“Not the most airtight defense. You might have to work on it.”

“I could hire you to defend me.”

“You definitely can’t afford me,” Marci said with all of the confidence that she usually said things.

“Did you come over just to mock me?”

“I’m here for you,” she said, “when Murdock inevitably does something shitty.”

“That’s mean.”

“I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt, forget the last decade or so of my life, and say that he won’t mean it. He is a gentleman. A crazy, crazy gentleman who will be the death of us all. Or at least of Foggy. And then there will be no forgiving. It will be scorched earth.”

“Yeah, I would get behind that,” he said. “But - let me enjoy this while I have it.”

“Fair enough.” She clinked her glass against his bottle. “Cheers.”

“L’chaim.”

“Don’t even start.”

 

Theo wasn’t solidly drunk by the end of the night - he’d eaten too much for that - but he was pleasantly drunk enough to make the walk home warm and cheerful, even while wearing an itchy new scarf.

“Sadie!” he called out as he came in the door. “I got you something new to destroy!” It was better when these things happened unintentionally, of course, but there had to be some upside to having a cat who was also the reason his tree was a sticker in his window instead of a three-dimensional item. She didn’t come running out to greet him, but she never did, and he had to nudge her across his bed far enough for him to climb in it.

He was hugging and drooling into his other pillow when he heard a knock on the door. The lights were out, but he could tell it was still night, and he didn’t have to be up and ready to go to Long Island until at least noon. “Go away! Just steal my packages and leave!” But the knocking persisted, so he climbed out of bed, made sure his undershirt was at least presentable, and opened the door. “What?”

“Someone’s stealing your packages?” Matt asked. He was still in church clothes.

“It happens. Especially around the holidays.” Theo blinked in the bright light of the hallway. “Don’t tell me you’re frisky from church. I am not into that.”

“It’s Christmas.”

“Yeah, I noticed.”

“I can’t spend Christmas with my boyfriend?” Matt said, and kissed him before Theo’s brain had time to parse the word ‘boyfriend.’ “When have you spent Christmas with someone?”

“I don’t want to say never,” Theo said. “But it’s probably never.”

“I won’t stay long. I have to be up for church.”

“Of course you do.”

“Can I come in?”

His brain was still low on processing power but Theo managed to say, “Yeah, you can come in.”

Matt took off his jacket and Sadie ‘mewed’ for him as he pet her head, something she didn’t do for anyone, so even animals were not immune to his legendary charm. He also might have been looking for scar tissue on her forehead.

“Don’t poke her eye out,” Theo said, getting right back into bed because it was cold and way too late for this.

“You never told me why you got her.”

Theo yawned. “It’s kind of a long story. Will you get in here if I tell you so I can go back to sleep?”

“Yes.” Matt stripped down to boxers, which was fine by Theo. His bed also wasn’t totally big enough for two fully-grown guys and one obnoxious cat, but he was fine with that, too.

“So - there was a guy. A boyfriend. It was the most serious relationship I’ve ever had. After six months I was basically living at his place and just picking up mail here. He had a fancy apartment with a doorman and an elevator and he had a job where he wore a suit and was confident and he loved me. And I had never had that, so I loved him too. But he got tired of me sneaking around. He wanted me to be out, at least with my family. He had a point, I guess. I wasn’t brave enough for him. But he also started to be sort of a dick about it, so we broke up. I want to say it was mutual, but he dumped me, and I don’t think angrily dumping him back in the elevator counts.

“So I’m just crushed by this, thinking I’ve lost the only guy who will ever really love me, and I’m depressed and I have to keep it all inside and act like everything’s just fine around work and my parents all day, and then come home to an empty apartment at night and I’m not used to sleeping alone anymore. So some friends say, ‘Get a dog.’ But dogs are work. I have a tiny apartment, and I don’t want to be the person with a tiny dog cooped up in their tiny apartment and paying dog walkers and all that. So they say, ‘Get a cat.’ I went to a shelter and I asked for the cat who had been there the longest because I thought, no one would ever want me, at least I’ll have some company in that. And Sadie was a mess. She was still healing and she needed eyedrops and they told me upfront there were going to be vet bills and she was mean, and I said I would take her anyway. Win her over with love or something. And after about a month she stopped trying to claw my face off so there’s been some improvement. I still think she would wait about a day before eating my body if I died.”

“That’s just all cats,” Matt said. “And anyone who asks you to do something you’re not ready for is a dickhead who doesn’t deserve you.”

“That’s nice of you to say - “

“And Sadie loves you. Her body languages changes when you’re up and about. When you’re asleep, she watches over you. I haven’t seen her around other people but I can guess.”

“Run into a lot of alley cats, do you?” Theo said. “Oh right, you do.”

“In alleys and on rooftops. Mostly alleys. Also dumpsters.”

“Dumpsters?”

“That’s a long story. I mean, from what I can remember of it, it is. And you said you wanted to go back to sleep.”

And now he had Matt’s perfectly-sculpted chest to hug and drool on instead of a pillow. How often did he wax? How did he get it all so perfectly smooth? “Yeah, I did.”

Matt’s beard was scratchy but in a good way when he kissed him. “Merry Christmas, Theo.”

“Merry Christmas, Matt.”

He’d talk about the boyfriend thing another time.

The End


End file.
